Jerzy Wierzbicki’s photographs presented at the exhibition Oman / Chernobyl. Eroding Presence show a vision of the world from which humans were ‘erased’, where nature brings back its order, gradually reclaiming its territory. The artist created both series almost in parallel: the first documents settlements in Oman that were abandoned almost overnight, the second – Chernobyl 30 years after the nuclear disaster.
In Oman, the buildings now stand empty because of economic factors: the rapid growth of the country’s prosperity and increase in standard of living. In Chernobyl, the inhabitants were forced to leave the polluted area. In both cases, we are witnessing a similar process: natural forces slowly annexing areas that were abandoned by humans.
Jerzy Wierzbicki (b. 1975) is a graduate of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the Łódź Film School, author of the Gdańsk Suburbia photographic album. He has won several awards at Polish and international press and art photography festivals. His works have been published, among others, in Newsweek Poland, Kwartalnik Fotografia, Pozytyw, National Geographic Traveler, BBC News, B&W Magazine, Y Magazine, Times of Oman and Al Shabiba. Since 2015, he has worked with MiddleEastEye.net, a British website on the Middle East. Wierzbicki’s photographs are held at National Museums in Gdańsk and Wrocław, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Museum of the History of Photography in Kraków as well as in private collections in Poland, Germany, USA, South Africa, the UK and Oman.
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